Fri, 28 Nov 2003 07:17:37 GMT

Big Thunder Mountain broken by negligence. Looks like the fatal crash on Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain was the result of poor maintenance. Disneyland’s maintenance has been suffering ever since a group of McKinsey and ex-McKinsey consultants advised them to save money by cutting back on preventative maintenance and forcing out experienced, senior cast-members. Management consultants: is there anything they can’t screw up?

“Our own analysis found that the accident was caused by incorrectly performed maintenance tasks required by Disneyland policy and procedures that resulted in a mechanical failure,” said Leslie Goodman, senior vice president of strategic communications for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

Link [Boing Boing Blog]

As if I did not have enough reaasons to dislike Disney. Now they have put park goers at risk in order to save a buck or two. Hope they get their butts sued big time, if this is all true.

A Microsoft Miracle

Bible in 10 sentences. If you run the book of Genesis through Microsoft Word’s automatic summarizer and ask for a ten-sentence summary you get: 31 Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. 17 Abraham prayed to God. 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father?” Abraham became the father of Isaac. Yahweh blessed him. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. 10 Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, bore Jacob a son. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him. 19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Ben and a bunch of… [Joho the Blog]

Much better than the Cliff’s Notes version and much faster to read.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I may sound negative sometimes but I am normally a pretty jolly fellow who does think that things will generally work out fine. I am glad that I am alive today, with all the things that make it a tremendous world to live in. I continue to be fascinated by what Life offers us. It is usually so unexpectedly positive. If we know when and where to look. I’ll try to keep looking.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 06:21:41 GMT

Four Children Die of Flu in Colorado. Officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the deaths could foretell a severe flu season for the country. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Health]

This does not bode well for the flu season. A large number of people are going to die from the flu. Get your flu shots now.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 02:16:47 GMT

More on the Elsevier boycott and cancellations. Jennifer Murphy, Library struggles to fund access, Daily Bruin, November 17, 2003. Excerpt: “It costs the [University of California] millions of dollars a year š about 50 percent of the UC’s online materials budget š to access the journals published by Elsevier, which provides access to over 1,100 online journals. But the cost of Elsevier journals does not match their use, said Biomedical Reference Librarian Janice Contini. Elsevier journals only comprise about a quarter of UC systemwide online journal usage, Cortini said.” (Thanks to LIS News.) [Open Access News]

Over 50% of the budget goes for journals that only see 25% of the use. Who do you think is getting ripped off? This sort of scam could work when the publishers had the leverage but with Open Access, their leverage is gone. Expect them to start suing next.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 02:12:51 GMT

I’m a Maverick, Not a Mogul!. Notorious loudmouth Mark Cuban and his business partner, Todd Wagner, sold Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion. Now they own Landmark Theatres, and Cuban thinks he’s ready to turn filmmaking on its ear. An interview with Xeni Jardin from Wired magazine. [Wired News]

He may not succeed but he has the right attitude. Instead of looking how he can sue someone to protect himself, catch this response.

Are you concerned about piracy in movie theaters?

Not one bit. If we can’t compete with some guy sneaking a camera into the theater, or a blurry, encoded, postage stamp-sized file, then please – just shoot us.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 02:10:29 GMT

Baseball Throws Web a Curve. It’s a legal showdown waiting to happen. Major League Baseball sees money in Web-based, real-time accounts of games, and it wants a piece of the action. By Mark McClusky. [Wired News]

Great. MLB wants it to be a copyright violation if a website provides real-time info on a game. Of course, MLB only wants you to see it from THEIR sites which will garner them a lot of money. Greedy bastards. But then, we have always known that the owners were just that. Instead of trying to get as many fans as possible involved, they want to hamper their ability to follow a team online. Well, I have been moving away from being a Mariners fan. After losing 3 of the best players of this generation, watching ticket/food/parking get obscene, sitting through another off-season with other teams getting better, I may have learned my lesson. I will refuse to be a fan who keeps giving these guys way too much of my money. I was a season ticket holder from the Kingdome through Safeco field and the All-Star game. I doubt I will be a season-ticket holder again.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 02:06:29 GMT

Another GOP Break-in vs. Dems. It may not be Watergate, but the Republicans have done it again. This time, a staffer to Sen. Orrin Hatch is accused of stealing files from Democratic computers. Unlike the stonewalling Nixon, Hatch has apologized and is cooperating. [Wired News]“B”

Hatch has done the right thing. Why are the Major Media outlets so slow to detail this? There have been several leaks of Democratic material. It is likely that similar hacks were made. The inability to trust the security of Congressional computers should be a huge deal. Instead, it is buried in the paper if it is mentioned at all.

There Are More Important things To Worry About

The Invisible Adjunct Is Non-Plussed.

The Invisible Adjunct is non-plussed, dismayed, disarrayed–but not defeated:

Invisible Adjunct: A Brief Note on Parody and Self-Parody: But damn. I was in the midst of a blog entry on Roger Kimball’s caricature of the Enlightenment, but I’ve lost my momentum. It’s not always easy to be a liberal. You want to resist the right-wing attacks on the academy, which too frequently involve grossly inaccurate caricature and grossly unfair parody. And then you come up against this sort of self-parodying gesture:

‘Going to the bathroom is a moment where definition is very important in choosing a door,’ said Mary Anne Case, one of the panelists.

She pointed out that many women’s restrooms have a caricature of a person in a dress on it. ‘Going into it implies that we are willing to be associated with that image. There are only two [images] to choose from. This moment involves an act of self-labeling.’

But I’m not so easily defeated…

[Semi-Daily Journal]

Yes, some people think about the weirdest things as they rush to a bathroom. But since in many localities, a woman can use the men’s bathroom if she has to while men can not do the reverse, I do not think that self-labeling will be a problem.

Quotes of the Day

John F. Kennedy. “Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.” [Quotes of the Day]

Aldous Huxley. “The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name.” [Quotes of the Day]

Steven Wright. “I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn’t park anywhere near the place.” [Quotes of the Day]

Robert McCloskey. “I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” [Quotes of the Day]

Abraham Lincoln. “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” [Quotes of the Day]

Mark Twain. “My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.” [Quotes of the Day]

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:49:09 GMT

Indie Labels Upset About Incorrect RIAA Link. Independent record labels are realizing just how much damage the RIAA is doing to their own members. With people using things like the RIAA Radar to make sure that they only by music from non-RIAA member labels, a bunch of independent labels are pissed off at the RIAA for including them on their list of members (story is an NPR radio stream). The labels say they’re not members, and want the RIAA to take them off their list as they fear the backlash from the RIAA’s tactics. Found via Dave Farber’s IP list. Unfortunately, the radio stream won’t work for me, but there’s a quick summary on the page linked. I’d be curious to know why the RIAA thinks it’s okay to name labels as members when they’re not, in fact, members. The posting at IP says that the labels are threatening the RIAA (ah, yes, the irony) with copyright infringement for using their names without permission.

[Techdirt]

Irony is sweet. I love the fact that the indies do not want to be associated with the RIAA since it might hurt their business. The music of rebellion will be found on indies while the RIAA members are the music of the comfortable. Which do you think will be more interesting and creative?

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:41:05 GMT

The Death of Criticism. The Death of Criticism – Polytropos has an excellent review of the extended-edition Two Towers DVD. But I think the… [Unqualified Offerings]

Polytropos is exactly right. The extended version is the first movie that was exponentially better with the added 43 minutes. I aas not to enamored of the Two towers when i first saw it, although it did grow on me with repeated viewing of the theatrical DVD. But the extended version makes it almost as good as the first. The choppiness of some of the materail is gone, amd many of the additions provide needed background and characterizations. It is a revelation. Now if we can just get it re-released as an extended version in the theatre.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:38:08 GMT

“BQ:Collective Responsibility Watch. Collective Responsibility Watch – More good news from Iraq: We’ve arrested another wife and daughter of a fugitive: U.S. forces… [Unqualified Offerings]

Is it a violation of the Geneva Convention to arrest civilians to use as hostages in this sort of operation? How long will we hold them? Especially since the man we are looking for is apparently dying of leukemia. WHat if he dies without coming forward?

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:25:58 GMT

Tips for faxing under Panther. via the MacDevCenter: Thanks to Panther, you can breath new life into your modem by using it as a built-in fax machine. Wei Meng Lee shows you the ins and outs of this new Mac OS X 10.3 feature. [Mac Net Journal]

Another reason I like Panther.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:21:13 GMT

George W. Bush Gets It Right.

George W. Bush goes to the right place for Thanksgiving dinner:

Semi-Daily Journal]

Something that the Administration did right. I truly hope he did it to demonstrate the importance of our troops rather than to use in a political ad. I’ll believe the former until the latter appears.

Update 11:03 PMUnfortunately, I am a cynic enough to believe that part of the reason the President did a good thing was because Hilary Clinton had already planned on spending Thanksgiving with some New York soldiers in Afghanistan. Someone like Rove would not miss the opportunity to push her Thanksgiving mission off the front page by doing something exceptional. Such a politcal animal, is Rove. I expect you will not hear much about her trip now.